Kenzie sat at her desk in her office, staring at the document on her screen. She repeatedly hits the spacebar, noticing Patrick walking in.
"Hey."
She looks up. "Hey."
"If someone gets murdered on the campus of a State University, it's ours, isn't it?"
"It can be if we muscle out the locals. Why'd you ask?"
"I need a big favor.
At Leyland Police headquarters, Kenzie and Patrick watched Sophie Miller be interrogated by the Chief of the Leyland PD, Ed Macvicar.
"Sophie, Alex Nelson's water bottle contained a ten percent solution of hydrogen cyanide. What do you know about that," asked Macvicar.
"I know hydrogen cyanide is a lethal poison. Beyond that, nothing at all. And please, call me Ms. Miller or Doctor Miller. Or Ma'am. Not Sophie, if you don't mind."
"You're not setting the boundaries here. You were seen by several witnesses arguing with the victim shortly before his death. You fled the scene immediately after his death."
"A cunning plan, eh?"
"Sophie, since your divorce from the victim two years ago, you've been arrested for assaulting him twice and made several death threats against him. He obtained a restraining order against you."
"I obtained one against him also."
"That's alright, then."
MacVicar tossed a photograph across the table for Sohpie to look at. "It didn't bother you that Alex had remarried? That he had found happiness with another woman?"
"Alex and I got past our personal history. We had to. For the sake of our work together."
"Yes, you work together. At the Stutzer Institute, which gives you ready access to hydrogen cyanide."
She shook her head, feeling tired. "I had thought, being innocent, that I don't need a lawyer. But you have some animus against me, I see. I'll say nothing more without a lawyer present."
Kenzie turns to Patrick. "Ok. What will you do if we do take this case, and it turns out she's guilty?"
"She didn't do it," claims Patrick.
"How do you know?"
"She told me she didn't. She wouldn't lie to me."
"Why not?"
"Because she wouldn't?"
"But what if she did?"
"If she's guilty, then, she needs to be caught and punished. But she isn't."
"Patrick, I know I wouldn't ask, but I'm asking. Who is this woman to you? What's the connection?"
"Trust me, you don't want to know."
🙂
A rookie cop carried a rolled-up poster and walked into the room to MacVicar, who talked to Kenzie and Patrick. The rookie waited for MacVicar to acknowledge him before speaking.
"She'll talk. She just needs time," said MacVicar.
"Time to do what," defensively asked Patrick.
Kenzie turned to him and glared. "Hey."
Patrick restrained himself.
"Look, I'm not saying she's isn't good for it, but there's no solid evidence to support that right now. We have to let her go," said Kenzie.
YOU ARE READING
I Bet on Losing Dogs - Patrick Jane
Fanfic"I bet on losing dogs, I know they're losing, and I'll pay for my place by the ring, Where I'll be looking in their eyes when they're down, ...
